Look at my face. Look what they did to me. Now, I wore that mask to protect me and my family because there are aliens who don't like to hear what I believe, don't like to hear the truth, so I'm cards up. What about Supergirl, huh? You know who I am. Who is she?Agent Liberty.
Benjamin "Ben" Lockwood, also known as Agent Liberty, is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Lex Luthor) in Season 4 and a minor antagonist in Season 5 in the TV series Supergirl.
He is the leader of the Children of Liberty who wants to rid the Earth of all aliens to prove that the human race is superior to extraterrestrials on other planets.
He was portrayed by Sam Witwer, who also played Doomsday in Smallville and Mr. Hyde in Once Upon a Time, Neil Perry in Dexter, and also voiced Ocean Master in Justice League: Throne of Atlantis and Son, Darth Maul, Galen Marek, and Darth Sidious in various Star Wars media.
Biography
Ben was a history professor at National City University, living with his wife Lydia, his son George, and his father Peter. He had helped his father out at his steel factory for some time, even negotiating with Lena Luthor for help with the factory. At dinner with his family, the news showed Supergirl trying to snap the city out of Myriad, but Peter didn't approve of Supergirl and the Alien Amnesty Act, hating so much of aliens that he wouldn't accept material from them. Ben tried to convince him otherwise, but his father wouldn't have it. However, after their argument, a fight at the Nth Metal Factory across the street included a fight between Peter's workers and two aliens at the factory, one of whom ended up accidentally shooting Ben in the chest. Supergirl arrived at the scene to break up the situation and Agent Alex Danvers helped deal with Ben's wounds. Later, Ben had bad luck when Lena denied any help for his father.
After Peter is killed during Reign's terraformation of the Earth, Ben founded the Children of Liberty and employed Mercy and Otis Graves to steal an EMP from an alien scientist and tried to kill Supergirl on multiple occasions. Ben was finally arrested and exposed as the Agent of Liberty. After he was arrested, the people are against Supergirl and CatCo media in "Bunker Hill".
In the second half of the fourth season, President Baker is anti-alien and also a supporter of Ben Lockwood. He found a loophole to grant his pardon. The President appointed him Director of Alien Affairs. So he and the rest of the children of liberty gets to finish repealing the Alien Amnesty Act. In All About Eve, the Alien Amnesty Act was officially repealed. He is unaware that he and the Children of Liberty are all patsy's aka pawns of Lex Luthor.
In the aftermath of Lex Luthor's tyranny, Luthor is dead and President Baker is impeached leading to the Alien Amnesty Act being reinstated. Ben is placed back in prison while his son, George is now an alien supporter. In the end, Ben was not only trapped in his own father's hate and in the end he end up back in jail, but his misguided anti-alien crusade lead to his son hating him thus becoming estranged from him.
Personality
Ben used to be a kind and open-minded person, but after his family suffered several alien-related tragedies, his views about aliens began to change. He also worried about his father, who had repeatedly tried to disprove his belief in aliens and had been saddened by his death.
Ben didn't hate aliens at first because he was much more accepting of them than his father was, but due to his father's negative influence, he gradually started to hate all aliens and eventually developed a strong prejudice against them, whether they are good or evil. His father is also the main reason he started the anti-alien movement in the first place. Ben eventually developed narcissistic traits similar to Peter's, constantly placing the blame for his own problems on others. For instance, when Ben lost his job as a university history professor, he initially tried to blame one of his former students, but in reality, he was the one to blame because the tenure board had repeatedly warned him against teaching his personal, prejudiced ideology to his non-alien students, which eventually led to his termination.
Victims
- Quill
- Fiona Byrne
- Otis Graves (third death)
- Numerous unnamed aliens (directly and indirectly)
Trivia
- He is the first male main antagonist in Supergirl as the previous main antagonists (Astra, Lillian, Rhea, Reign, and Selena) were all female. Though Non arguably became the main antagonist of Season 1 after Astra's death.
- He is also the second main antagonist introduced in Supergirl to be a human, after Lillian Luthor.
- Unlike the previous antagonists of the series, he has complete support from the people of National City, with his support growing in number faster since his incarceration.
- He is similar to The Flash main antagonist Cicada, as both characters lost a family member and harbor hatred of metahumans and aliens which leads to them becoming villains.
- however, unlike Cicada, Agent Liberty has support from many citizens of his city and country.
- He was considered the main antagonist in season 4 of Supergirl, but in the House Of L, he was revealed to be the unwitting "patsy" of the real big bad, Lex Luthor.
- This marks Sam Witwer's second portrayal of a DC character; he previously played Doomsday in the 2001-2011 TV series Smallville.
External Links
- Ben Lockwood on the Arrowverse Wiki
